Part-time online masters in CS while working full-time: Part 2 — Whats and Hows

Recap: I completed my Masters in Computer Science from ASU online back this Dec'23. Part 1 talks about why I decided to do so. This is also end of the series.

Whats

What is the most critical thing online masters missing?

Universities aren't just courseworks and labs. It's also the people. My thoughts on this topic are well captured by Sam Altman's perspective as well. Talent attracts talent, and universities are hubs for this clustering effect. Great work are done through focus, connections, and self-belief. Being around brilliant people naturally builds connections, boosts motivation and self-belief. In-person programs offer this proximity advantage, which online programs simply can't replicate.

If online programs can't provide the most critical advantage of higher studies, then what can it provide? Read on…

What do the online masters provide then?

Well, to begin with, courseworks and labs. Online programs provide valuable coursework and the flexibility to learn on your own terms. If you find the material engaging and the certification goal meaningful, the journey is a powerful investment in yourself.

As a result of the program, I genuinely find myself more knowledgable on variety of topics.

What did I "specialize" on in the Masters program?

Many master's programs offer valuable specializations like ASU's Big Data specialization. I explicitly chose to keep an open agenda in my masters courses; mostly because the freedom mattered to me. I didn't want to tie myself with very strict course choices without knowing more about the instructors and quality of courses.

Hows

How my life looked like while on the program?

Part-time online graduate programs offer a trade-off: enjoyable courses provide an excuse to focus, while less engaging ones can mean missing out on social life.

Regardless, online masters programs demand your weekends. There are definitely scopes to cut corners: doing coursework as minimum as possible is definitely a common pattern to save weekends. But hey, what's the point of the investment if you avoid getting maximum value from the one thing an online masters program provide, access to course material.

There are better ways to optimize for some social time during weekends. For me, the 40 min each-way commute was easy to optimize for. I optimized for keeping meaningful social engagements like family plans, work-lunches, important social events; two year is a long-time. I traded-away commute-time youtube music, netflix binge-watching, FOMO driven social engagements etc.

Sub-question: how did I plan for trips?

Likely, there are a few free weeks sprinkled over the programs: week after mid-term, between semesters, summer, year-end etc. Planning ahead, aligning work time-offs and making most out of the off-times is probably the most practical approach to trips. That being said, these trips and travels were extremely valuable and felt like hard-earned (perhaps harder-earned) vacations.

How do I budget for the costs?

Most master's programs offer pay-as-you-go tuition, letting me budget and pay per course at the beginning of semester. For ASU, that comes out as 3k.

Google generously sponsors two-third (up to 10k annually) for job-related education programs. Manager needs to approve the courses to establish the program is job-related. In my case, it was straight forward and I didn't have to sacrifice any of my course choices.

Note while budgeting: it's likely that your work sponsorship reimburses after the course completion. So, while budgeting, you need to plan for way to pay the whole cost.

How do I get best value?

I focused on unfamiliar topics in my coursework to maximize knowledge gain.

In summary, I wouldn't focus solely on the university name for online part-time master's. Instructor quality matters. ASU have instructor-based setup where near-to-completion PhD students are the to-go instructor and there are additional TAs. Exceptions are made for "top courses". In my case, Statistical Machine Learning had a Professor as course instructor and it was extremely enjoyable.